The PumPing Tap[1] might be just the green gadget that phantom power regulators[2] have been looking for. It’s a smart socket that knows when you’ve turned your appliances off and if you don’t pull the plug out after ten minutes it pops your vampire power sucking cord right out. The concept was just honored with a Red Dot Design Concept Award[3] for its innovative thinking around power use, and we have to say that we’d buy it for sure if it becomes a real product.

Of course there are a couple of issues with the design. For a plug under your sofa for the television, you’re just not going to want to crawl under there every time you turn the TV off to plug it back in. But for other more accessible sockets, this would work great. A coffee maker, hair dryer, toaster oven or cell phone charger would all work perfectly with this vampire power zapping[4] gadget.

The design is only a concept as of now but the team that dreamed up the idea probably got a bit of prize money from the Red Dot[1] award. Might we see this little bugger on store shelves in the future?